These days it’s nasty stuff. It’s made with oil, is low sodium and has a nasty background flavor. I remember the government cheese from years ago. It was a nice 5lb real cheese comparable to land ‘o lakes American cheese that you could get from the deli. Was truly delicious. Not any more. About the best you can do with it is melt it down with some salsa and call it nacho cheese. Velveeta is better, honestly.
You can’t purchase personal care products with food stamps. They are for food only. But you CAN purchase seeds to grow your own veggie garden with.
Frozen foods a problem? Not when Frozen fruits and veggies are cheaper per lb. Than fresh. Does that mean you shouldn’t be allowed to buy canned/jarred spaghetti sauce? Then why should you be able to buy canned tomatoes? You see, it can digress from there.
I don’t care what the program is, you are not going to contain fraud. There is always going to be a way to make an extra buck.
Sadly, many people don’t know how to cook! That makes my head spin around like a demon possion movie, but it’s true! Engage people in the grocery store in conversation some time, and you’ll see for yourself. I’m not talking about young folks either.
And then, there are the disabled who can’t open packaging it jars, or cans without some help. Some can’t stand on their feet for the time it takes to fix a meal from scratch. Some folks can’t peel their own potatoes or carrots, and don’t have the teeth needed to eat raw veggies.
Some of these folks find a $2.00 Marie Calendar’s frozen chicken with brocalli a treat and a feast.
Heat in the microwave and you have a hot, tasty dinner. You can even do it from a wheel chair IF you have help getting thru the packaging.
The WIC program gives vouchers for specific items like milk, dried beans, juices, peanut butter etc. But, if they made boxed packages, a lot would go to waste because of things like medical issues...not everybody can eat spinach or green leafy vegetables. Not everyone can eat brassicas, or onions, or strawberries. The boxes would most likely be one size fits all.
They can somewhat control purchases by limiting some choices on food stamps for example, non-presweetened cereals, non-sweetened juics, no fruit drinks..pure juices only.
But when they do that, the prices rise for the consumers...all of them. They become profit items.
Finally, if you look around your community with wise eyes, you will see that pretty much everything depends on government funding of one sort or another. Housing, utilities, hospitals, pharmacies, grocery stores, department stores, even fast food...all of them receive their monthly business boost when those public checks come out. Every City and town would end up in a crisis if those subsidies stopped.
It’s too entrenched to make a shift all at once. It has to be gradual and can’t apply to everyone. Want to make a person want to crawl out of the over to hole? Give them a taste of the good life. It has to be taangible, and within reach. Start with younger people. That’s why I’m migrants come here. Hope.
People forgot how to climb, and parents aren’t around enough to teach them. Think.
That is the honest truth. I once helped out a young woman with a couple kids that was in a bind due to car repairs. I ran to the store and bought her a cupboard full of groceries to last her until she got paid. I bought her things to cook with- not prepared foods, I didn't even think about her not cooking. When I dropped them off she asked me what do you do with tomato sauce? She did not have a clue how to cook. She normally "cooked" things like corn dogs and tator tots. She lived next door to my daughter so I told her my daughter would tell her what to do with the food...my daughter knew how to cook!
Thank you for that wise, considerate and heartfelt post.
Scrub them clean and cook them. Peeling wastes nutrients.